Windmill Isle

The team consisting of Dario FF, Chimera and TwilightZoney have released the first act of the first stage of Sonic Unleashed, Windmill Isle, for the PC version of Sonic Generations. The purpose of this release is to test the mod on as many systems as possible. If it works on enough systems they’ll start to convert all of Unleashed’s stages. More details can be found in the following video and in the link that follows.

Here is the forum thread with details where it can be downloaded along with instructions on how to install it. Other credits go to JoeTE for ripping the songs, Korama for making CPKREDIR (which makes developing and using mods more efficient and easier) and MainMemory for making Generations Archive Editor (which does what the name implies). Like it was mentioned earlier, the intent for this release is to test it on as much hardware as possible. Meaning that you can help the development of the mod by posting the results of how it works on your set-up on the forums. Also post results if you mess around with it by doing stuff like combining it with other mods like Classic Sonic Adventures or some model swap you found on Youtube.

Sega’s been showing a lot of love to PC owners as of late with releases of Sonic Generations, Sonic 4: Episode 1 and Sonic CD to the platform. But what of Sonic Unleashed, the game which kicked off Modern Sonic’s current breakneck speed style (and included the highly divisive Werehog)? If anything, those Unleashed stages may soon be making their way as a patch to the PC version of the game.

Forum members Dario FF, Twilightzoney and Chimera have been hard at work trying to bring Unleashed‘s stages over to Generations’ engine. In one week, they went from bringing in the stages without any sort of collision and usage of Global Illumination Ambiance (GIA), the system used in both Unleashed and Generations to give some dynamic lighting to the levels, to the above video. So far, Windmill Isle Act 2, Dragon Road Act 1 and Cool Edge Act 1 have all made a partial conversion. The group admits that while progress is going well, there is still much work to be done.

It’s November 4th, which means that if you live in Europe, you’re not reading anything about Sonic Generations – you’re now living it, experiencing each reimagined level yourself. Of course, we all seem to forget that if you speak Japanese, you’re still out of luck. In one more move that celebrates the month delay of the original Sonic the Hedgehog, Japanese gamers still have to wait until December 1st to get their hands on this Sonic celebration. Will that month be spent including extra moving clouds? Who knows. But until then, the Japanese get to watch commercials for it.

It’s a bit of a shame that they didn’t decide to take the marketing all the way, and do classic/modern versions of their old ads, but it is fairly straightforward. And it does reveal the final level for the Nintendo 3DS version of the game – Apotos, aka Windmill Isle. Of course, regardless of where you live, you still have to wait until you can get your hands on that 3DS cartridge, so the party isn’t over until SEGA says so.